Northwest's fourth quarter profits drop 9.7 percent

Northwest Bank's fourth quarter profits fell 10 percent in the fourth quarter from a year ago, to $22.1 million.

For all of 2017, Pennsylvania-based Northwest's profits more than doubled to $94.5 million from $44.8 million in 2016. The driving factors were the sale of its three Maryland offices at a profit of $17.2 million, and a $37 million pretax penalty the bank incurred in 2016 but was not repeated in 2017.

William J. Wagner, Northwest's chairman and CEO, called 2017 "a year of significant restructuring for our company." Among the changes were the sale of the Maryland branches, the closing of its consumer finance subsidiary and the sale of its retirement services business. The bank also named a new president, Ronald Sieffert.